Public Transportation, Tate Modern museum, and Globe Theatre

Hello,

I apologize for the lateness of this blog post. It has been a hectic first couple of weeks trying to get my bearings and prepare for class. I have slowly been exploring the city more and more. Trying to get out of this posh neighborhood and determining the best way to use public transportation. The underground, a.k.a tube, is the easiest way to get across the city it is very efficient and fast. However, you don't get to see too much of the city when you travel underground and it can be very expensive if you travel between zones. The bus is a little more confusing than the the underground, but it is cheaper and you get to see all the sights. Almost all the buses are double deckers here and are kept very clean. The best way to describe it is vintage and traditional. The last form of public transportation that you can use besides taxis and walking; is the bike system. You can go to any of these bike stops, and rent a bike for a day. It is only cost one pound. There are over 300 of these bike stops across Zone 1 in London, which is where I live.

This last saturday I went to the Tate Modern museum. The Tate Modern is a museum that exhibits modern art. It was an old power plant that got turned into a museum (there is a picture below). It has seven floors and three floors are full of exhibits. Not going to lie some of the exhibits were "beyond me." I really don't get how art can be just a big canvas and line... Oh well, some of the other exhibits were amazing. There were Pablo Picasso paintings, which contained more of his surrealism and abstract paintings. My favorite exhibit was this one called A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters,  by Taryn Simon. You can read more about it Here. My other favorite part of the Tate Modern is the view from the balconies. Also, the day I went I got lucky because it was the Thames festival. So there was just a lot of people walking along the river and there was live music. London is a great city to people watch! Since, it is so multicultural. Last thing to add and the great thing about London is that all of the museums and art galleries are free, which is great when you are poor college student.

Millennium bridge. This bridge is in Harry Potter and gets destroyed in the sixth movie. 

Picture of the Bridge from the Balcony in Modern Tate.

This is apart of the Thames festival.

I don't get lines... Looks like a murder scene.

Favorite Picasso Painting that I saw, notice how the "blue" face looks like it kissing the "white" face.

Being a history a minor, I love just walking around. You can just feel and see the history in London. When walking outside of a pub you can find memorials and monuments attributed to subjects that I have just learned in class. It is amazing being able to experience it and now I can say "oh I have been there," just makes everything more relatable. Speaking of places that I can now say "I have been there," for class I went to the globe! I watched the play Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe. It was hilarious and the production at the globe is incredible. If you are willing to stand in the yard and be known as a "groundling" you can get a ticket for five pounds. It was painful to stand for three hours but it is totally worth it. Most study abroad students have "trip" classes, which means that there class goes on trips throughout london. I am just fortunate enough that mine goes to the globe and sees plays!

Classmates and me at the Globe! The poster for the play is behind us.

Cheers,

Brian Trubowitz

Just Touchdown in London

Well hello there,

I arrived in London on August 30th, and it has been almost non-stop since I have gotten here. The time difference is five hours from eastern time, and seven hours from mountain time. I essentially lost an entire day to traveling because my flight from Calgary was eight and half hours. Thus far it has been pretty surreal for multiple reasons. First, I live in a place called kensington which is the richest part in not just London but the entire UK. There are some of the most expensive flats here in the entire world. A couple of blocks down from me there is a flat worth a 110 million pounds. It doesn't even have a kitchen! This is the rich of the rich or how people say it here the "'posh' of the 'posh'". It is absurd. The cars on my blocks are cars that I can only dream of buying. There are Beamer, Benz, Bentley's, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Ferrari's, etc. I may just spend a day taking pictures of all these cars so people can understand this neighborhood. Essentially I will never live in a place like this again, unless somehow I am a billionaire. A picture of the 110 million pound price flat is below:

This is the block that I live on!

Everywhere I have been so far in London is gorgeous and clean. All the edifices on the building are beautiful s and each one is different. I will try and post several picture to show everything that I mean.  Everyone on the trip has been very outgoing and nice so far. It is definitely an adjustment get use to all of the british laws. The most obvious is driving. Streets are narrower and they drive going the opposite direction, which most people know so I won't elaborate. But what is different is that pedestrians don't have the right-a-way. So if your not careful you can easily get hit. The other day I almost got ran over by a bicyclist! Luckily, that didn't happen. On some streets they paint signs on which direction to look. This is clearly put here for tourist like me. 

Some other laws is that you can't carry a taser, pepper spray, or anything pointy. Taser and pepper sprays are considered to be firearms and if you have anything pointy then police can arrest you. They I.D. you here for cutler, yes that includes plastic knives. 

The tube (London's subway), is the cleanest subway system that I have ever seen. Even when it is packed in the tube people don't push here. It is very "proper." The dogs are some the tamest that I have ever been around. Everything is small here, really everything is just oversized in america. Going to pubs are amazing. We went to a more suburban part of london, called Richmond and we were able to drink outside along the thames river, which is pronounced timms. It runs through central London. It was one of the best views I have ever seen. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. I will have to go back. 

This is all I can think of for now. Here are some more pictures from the bus tour. Very touristy stuff. 

This is Tower Bridge.

Me outside of Big Ben. Big Ben is the bell in the tower not the clock.

Just thought this was an awesome picture.

Very Truly Yours,

Brian

New slang "Cheers=Thanks"

The song of the week is "American Boy," by Estelle ft. Kayne West.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic5vxw3eijY

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Hola!

I am writing this because I am headed off tomorrow. The last couple of days all I have felt like I have done is laundry, pack, and did I mention laundry. I have so many (damn) clothes. I guess that is what I get when my dad is a "better" shopper then most people and women. Notice better is in quotations.

I will keep this blog post very brief. I am writing this one because I forgot to mention a couple of things that I think are important. First, are the reasons that I am studying abroad and why I choose London. I have a learning disability called dyslexia and essentially this affects my ability to learn languages and I mix up several words, letters, sayings, grammar etc. Therefore, I choose England because I already know english!  Also, I apologize for grammar and spelling on any these blog post, sometimes I just can't help it.

Another reason that I choose London is because one of my favorite professors at OWU is the British history professor. Out of the seven history classes that I have taken, he has taught three of them. His name is professor Spall. If you take his class prepare for many monty python jokes and impersonations. I think one of my favorite jokes by him, when he gets something wrong, he says; "Well, I guess The Germans bomb pearl harbor if I wanted them too." Hilarious! Take his class, he was a very influential on my decision. Hopefully, I will be able to take a picture next to Jeremy Bentham body.

The last main reason for studying abroad is that I was getting worn out and tired at OWU. After three years everything started to fill the same and I felt too complacent. I was ready for something new. For how much I love Ohio Wesleyan there were a lot things that started to annoy me. I didn't want to grow and dislike my school. I guess I just had the' junior slumps, but now I am ready to experience something new.

Alright, to switch gears I have to give a fresh x shout out. For all of you that don't know, fresh x is a pre-orientation program for incoming students. It is completely lead by students, but of course administration plans the logistics and trains us. There are only two programs wilderness and habitat. Wilderness goes camping and Habitat does habitat for humanity, in delaware county. This summer I was a Habitat leader with one of my best friends Katrina. It was amazing. We had great group of freshman that I hope to continues to be friends with, though it is sad that I won't see them change and grow this semester. Oh well.

I have to say that fresh x was a little eye opening for myself. I did fresh x my freshman year, and after leading it this past summer I could see how much I have developed. These last three years I have grown to the person I am today, and the most noticeable difference is the confidence that I have in myself.

Now on to a more sombering note... This summer one of my friends and fraternity brother tragically passed away. His name is Aaron Riley, he graduated from OWU this past year and was going to MSU for graduate school. He was doing an environmental internship in D.C. I believe he and whoever else was doing the internship went to a lake in Pennsylvania, to study lake management. I don't know too much of the details but Aaron went for swim in the lake... And you guess the rest but Aaron did have epilepsy and they believe that had a part to play in his death.

There was memorial service in east lansing,  MI. It was a wonderful service. There was a lot of support for Aaron's family and a bunch of OWU students ended up making it to the service. Aaron had touched, livened, and help many people in short but filling life. I was never particular close to him. At times we didn't get along or see eye to eye. However, at the end of the day I always knew that Riley had a great heart. He genuinely cared for others. He had passion and motivation for his interesest that is lacking in most people.

Aaron you taught me a lot about myself. I know that you will be missed, but never forgotten in our memories.


Very Truly Yours,

Brian


P.S. For each blog I think I will include a link to a song or music video, depending on my mood. This one of course is "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vJUadjdmo.

The Countdown (5 days)

Hello, 

This is my first time writing in a blog outside of class. So this will be an experiment, that I will hopefully keep up for the next several months. My name is Brian Trubowitz and I am senior in college at Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU pronounced Oh-Woo). I will be studying abroad in London this fall semester. I know most people study abroad their junior year, but I wasn't organized enough in my sophomore year to plan ahead. Thus, I am going abroad this fall. I am very excited.

Alright so a little more about myself. I am from Denver, Colorado, which is a beautiful place. I strongly recommend visiting Colorado at least once in your life and I wouldn't be surprised if you feel in love... But I digress. I am an Economics with Management major with a history minor. My only future plan, as of right now, is to eventually get a M.B.A. Being a senior can be quite nerve-wracking, since the future is so unknown. It can also be frustrating when some of your friends already know what they are doing after college. Even though I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, I just have a feeling that there will be a lot of amazing opportunities ahead of me. 

This summer was a very productive summer for me. I took a summer class at OWU, then had a six week internship at law firm in Rochester, NY. The law firm practiced elderly law or as my dad would like to say "geriatric"law. I was the intern at this law firm and sometimes I would do interesting work, such as accounting for peoples estates, evaluating stocks/portfolios, or witness will signing. Other times it was a typical internship and I would do things, like answering phones, faxing, copying, or writing letters. Overall the experience was great. The work environment was amazing, everyone was very helpful and nice to me. I couldn't have asked for a better internship.

Also, this summer I did a lot of traveling across the United States. I think this past year alone I put almost 20,000 thousand miles on my car. To put that in perspective that is almost going across the U.S. seven times. The car that I drove, mostly, was a 1991 Toyota Previa (Minivan).  It is awesome and I will try and put up a picture of it when I learn how this blog works. The places that I have been this summer are; Columbus, Cleveland/Euclid, Denver, Boulder, Rochester, Ithaca, Buffalo, Fairfax/D.C., Silver Springs MD, Carlisle, Detroit, East Lansing, and any city along I-70. I can't remember much else but hopefully you got an idea that I traveled/drove a lot this summer. I have to say that one of the prettiest drives is from NY to Fairfax, VA on a route called 15. It goes North/South and that drive is what I imagine Ameeerica to be...(yes you must say it like that). I would also like to thank anyone that I stayed with or saw this summer. You are all wonderful people. 

Warning I like to quote songs and sometimes movies. So, I apologize if you don't get the reference. When it comes to music I would like to think of myself as one of those, for lack of a better word, nerdy ESPN sports analysts that loves sports (music) but is so untalented that all they can do is talk about sports 

instead of playing it. Well next blog post will hopefully come from London. So be prepared.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZa3EYWCY3w&NR=1

Very Truly Yours,

Brian Trubowitz